Energy

One of the greatest challenges of mankind today is that the world population and the world's energy consumption are increasing continuously. The majority of our power production derives from the combustion of fossil fuels, including coal, with additional significant contributions from hydroelectric and nuclear energy conversion. All of these energy conversion methods create different types of pollution. Fossil fuels are a finite resource of solar energy stored in floral and faunal fossils over many millions of years. The ever increasing demand for this finite and dwindling resource has the potential to significantly increase the cost of these resources. Additionally, an undesirable consequence of the thermo-chemical conversion of fossil fuels by combustion is environmental contamination. The reaction products from combustion can be harmful to the environment and us humans on a local scale, and may contribute to global climatic changes. Fossil fuel resources are unevenly distributed over the globe, leading to geopolitical unrest as a result of the competition for resource access. Clearly, the energy demands of our society need to be satisfied in a more appropriate, sustainable, and efficient way. Beyond the production and clean conversion of energy with low emissions, the storage and transmission of energy have to be solved sustainably. Nanowires made from carbon fibres have been proposed as modern transmission lines with the potential to significantly reduce the losses inside the distribution networks. Other smart materials developments can result in cleaner energy conversion for our society. This work builds on the pioneer work performed by Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley, taking his vision of clean energy transmission through carbon structures into the second decade of the 21st century.